Met Gala 2025 food rules: What’s allowed and what's not on fashion's biggest night

The countdown has begun!
The Met Monday is here, and with that, fashion’s biggest parade night is only hours away!
The Met Gala this year is set to be held on May 5, the first Monday of May, which will mark the opening of the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual fashion exhibit, which is hosted on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, USA.
While the Met Gala is one of the most exclusive, prestigious, and talked-about events of the year, it is also quite popular for its ‘weird’ dos and don’ts!

Not just on some celebrities (Re: President Donald Trump is banned from returning to those steps), the Met Gala, in fact, even has a ban on some foods!
Read on to find out!


Anna Wintour, the Editor-in-Chief of Vogue, although she is known and mostly seen behind the dark sunnies, pays a great deal of attention to every little detail of curating and executing the Met Gala. From the guest list to the food menu, nothing gets going without a green light from Wintour, as she meticulously plans the fashion event of the year to a T.
While this year’s theme for the Met Gala is already drawing quite a bit of attention, it’s the list of outlaws that is in the news as well.

While the theme and guest list of the Met Gala change year to year, there's one thing that remains the same: it’s Wintour’s list of banned foods.

Yes, you heard that right!
There’s a list of foods that Wintour banned last year, and needless to say, that restriction will be adhered to this year as well.
In 2024, Wintour forbade caterers from using garlic, onion, and chives in any of the dishes. "Those are three things I’m not particularly fond of," she told Jenna Bush Hager on The Today Show.
According to the executive chef and owner-proprietor of Great Taste Catering in Los Angeles, Josh Jackson, there's a bit more to Wintour's ban than just a personal distaste for alliums. He told PEOPLE, "She doesn’t want the food to affect the breath of the celebrity guests. Also, there are several people who are actually allergic to the allium family of bulbous plants, which is rare but possible." He added, "But that’s maybe a stretch," continuing, "The real reason must be that she doesn’t want to see chives in the guests’ teeth. It’s understandable."

According to Wintour, the reason behind banning onions, garlic, and chives is pretty practical — to avoid any unpleasant odors during close-up interactions and red carpet interviews.
Although, in addition to onions, chives, and garlic, Wintour reportedly nixed parsley from menus long ago (so that no one is walking around with it stuck in their teeth) and bruschetta (which could easily ruin an outfit).

Although Wintour and the rest of the Met Gala planning committee have remained tight-lipped about this year's dinner, celebrity chef Kwame Onwuachi reportedly will be curating the menu for the glam night.
Chef Onwuachi of Tatiana had shared his excitement regarding the project while saying, "I am thrilled and honored to be creating the dining experience for this year's Met Gala. As a chef who grew up in the Bronx, being a part of such an iconic New York institution for the most celebrated, star-studded night of the year is like a professional dream come true.”

This year’s theme for the Gala is “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.”
This theme aims to highlight the concept of Black dandyism, drawing inspiration from the work of Monica Miller, a professor and chair of Africana Studies at Barnard College, and her book ‘Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity’.
Keeping up with the essence of this year’s theme, Kwame shared, "As a lover of high fashion, collaborating on the theme, Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, brings a whole new level of inspiration for me and my team to work with."